Many authors are trying their hands on historical fiction these days. We quite well know a few of them as the leaders in Indian fiction industry – Amish and Ashwin the leader ones. Moreover, inspired by these or otherwise, there are many others who have begun trying their luck in producing historical fiction and one among the newcomers is Pravin Anand, a serving BDO from Kanpur, who is the author of three novels by now. The last one, Mumtaz and Taj Mahal, is based on historical evidence of the love between Mumtaz and Shah Jahan, the love that culminated in the form of Taj Mahal. Pravin has tried to explore this love with a fanciful idea – introducing new devices of writing such as dreams and visions. As a reader, I quite liked the idea and also enjoyed reading his novel. Here is my review of the same.

Mumtaz and Taj Mahal is a fiction and we might expect a little hint and tint of fancy and fiction, no doubt. However, the historical evidence has remained the same without many alterations. Here and there, if you try to match exactly, you may find a few cuts and additions. However, that does not matter because, ultimately, it’s a book of fiction written with the purpose of entertaining the audience and that, to be honest, it does very aptly.

The leading characters, as we might well anticipate, are Mumtaz and Shahjahan. Their meetings, their life before marriage and then after marriage find a good reflection in this novel. One might have expected to read it. The language is simple; the narrative is lighter than what might be the perfectly suited one and the theme is absolutely based on love and love only. Romance is there and also a light layer of royal touch in the romance is there. However, it certainly fails to take the narrative to the height which might have escalated the novel to its designation.

Reading the novel, Mumtaz and Taj Mahal, certainly arouses an urge to read and analyse other novels written by Pravin Anand and I will surely be doing an article on his writings. I will try to analyse his writing in the light of works written by him very soon. Meanwhile, this novel is certainly meant to be read by the readers who have an interest in history, sense of history and love. You can pick a copy of this novel from Amazon by clicking the link below:

Get a copy of Pravin’s novel – Click here

review by Vishal for BooksToRead